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Happy #TBT! Here’s an oldie-but-goodie post from Jim: What Live Entertainment Can Learn From Chick-fil-A.We've discussed the phenomenon of using a live event to promote a live event. Jim Royce [formerly of Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles] told us about a successful launch event they did to promote the onsale of Spamalot at the Ahmanson Theater. They took the wacky, silly theme of Monty Python, got a few of their people to dress up in costume and grabbed attention...

Happy #TBT! Here’s an oldie-but-goodie post from Jim: All About the LUV.People in arts and entertainment (but especially the arts) are fairly self-critical about their attitude toward audiences, and with good reason. The arrogance that it takes to ignore the people who are paying your bills is unattractive by almost any measure.But it’s worth saying that this dysfunction of thought is by no means limited to arts and entertainment folks.By contrast, that arrogance I was just talking about seems...

Happy #TBT! Here's an oldie-but-goodie post from Jim: "Free" Is Not a Business Plan.Free is Chris Anderson’s latest book [@2009], and the premise is fascinating: In a world of bits instead of atoms (by which Anderson means electronic information as opposed to physical goods or services), the price of serving that one extra customer is so low as to be nearly zero. This in turn liberates the producer of such services to give them away on a broad basis...

Happy #TBT! Piggybacking on a previous post about math being a crucial part of marketing and selling out -- Stat Concepts You Should Know (Even if You Hate Math), we thought we'd share this oldie-but-goodie post from Jim: Math Phobia Is for Losers. This is one idea that Jim expands on, which he originally wrote about in 15 thoughts about pricing for the new year.You’re not Mad Men. Neither am I. Marketing today combines right brain and left brain thinking in...

Happy #TBT! Here’s Part II to last week's oldie-but-goodie post from Jim: One-Step Strategy for Success: Be Awesome. In Part I, Jim comments on a Bob Lefsetz article about the troubled state of music and the music business. Jim offers that Lefsetz's remedy is better music.And maybe Bob’s right: Just make better music. Just don’t suck. Just be great. Which is easy, if, you know, you’re great. Hey, Beatles, just make great music!“Righty-o, old chap. How many No. 1s...

Happy #TBT. Here’s an oldie-but-goodie post from Jim: One-Step Strategy for Success: Be Awesome. We're breaking it into two parts. Check back next week for Part II.In 2009, Bob Lefsetz wrote about the state of music and the music business.I'll paraphrase here, which of course means you’re getting my interpretation of what he said, so maybe it’s best if you also go read his piece, too.But his point is this, as far as I can tell: The concert business (or...

Happy #TBT. In light of recent airline news, we’re sharing an oldie-but-goodie post from Jim: Theo’s Backpack and What It Means to You.Recently, on a flight on Southwest Airlines, a kid named Theo left his backpack behind when his family got off the flight, as 4-year-olds will do.What follows is a story of heroism. Here’s the key snippet from the story:“During a recent trip to Utah with my wife and kids, my 4-year-old son lost his little blue backpack....

Happy #TBT. To celebrate, we’re sharing an oldie-but-goodie post from Jim: The Nacho Paradox.Years ago, we had an event for sale on the Goldstar site that was a concert by a well-known classic rock band in a dinner club that held about 1,000 people. It might have been Styx.Anyway, both the act and the venue were well-known to people, and seemingly, not much could go wrong. We sold a lot of tickets and expected good feedback and happy members...

Happy #TBT. To celebrate, we’re sharing an oldie-but-goodie post from Jim: Puritans and Cake Without Icing.In any field of human endeavor, you will find people who like things stripped down to their essence, free of trappings and “pure.”The Puritans come to mind, for example.Their whole outlook on life was that the Church had become too much about religion and not enough about God. To them, you found God by stripping away everything else, including the incense, the ceremony and...

Happy #TBT. To celebrate, we’re sharing an oldie-but-goodie post from Jim: Don’t Confuse Me With the Facts.Seth Godin urges you to use facts as part of your decision-making when available. It sounds simple, right? But it’s vastly complicated by the fact that every fiber of your being is built to ignore facts when you’ve got a “feeling” about something.And his point is also that there’s more good data than ever. Here’s an excerpt:“What are you going to do when...